The “total cost of publication” in a hybrid open‐access environment: Institutional approaches to funding journal article‐processing charges in combination with subscriptions

Abstract

As open-access (OA) publishing funded by articleprocessing charges (APCs) becomes more widely accepted, academic institutions need to be aware of the "total cost of publication" (TCP), comprising subscription costs plus APCs and additional administration costs. This study analyzes data from 23 UK institutions covering the period 2007-2014 modeling the TCP. It shows a clear rise in centrally managed APC payments from 2012 onward, with payments projected to increase further. As well as evidencing the growing availability and acceptance of OA publishing, these trends reflect particular UK policy developments and funding arrangements intended to accelerate the move toward OA publishing ("Gold" OA). Although the mean value of APCs has been relatively stable, there was considerable variation in APC prices paid by institutions since 2007. In particular, "hybrid" subscription/OA journals were consistently more expensive than fully OA journals. Most APCs were paid to large "traditional" commercial publishers who also received considerable subscription income. New administrative costs reported by institutions varied considerably. The total cost of publication modeling shows that APCs are now a significant part of the TCP for academic institutions, in 2013 already constituting an average of 10% of the TCP (excluding administrative costs).

Cost estimates of an open access mandate for monographs in the UK’s third Research Excellence Framework

“…However, we caution that we have not seen the emergence of an effective article processing charge (APC) market in the journal space as a result of this and are sceptical that one would emerge in the book space through this approach. 30 We would also like to caution about institutional mobility in this model. If funds are delegated according to the volumes or quality profiles from the last REF, it may make it harder for fast risers to benefit from a full OA monograph complement.…”

Measuring Cost per Use of Library-Funded Open Access Article Processing Charges: Examination and Implications of One Method

“…Pinfield, Salter and Bath (2015) researched the cost of APCs, subscriptions and administration costs, to attempt to calculate the "total cost of publication" for UK higher education institutions. Building on the notion, Gray (2015) investigated the cost of additional other publication charges, such as page fees, color fees and submission charges, for their inclusion in the total cost of publication.…”

The Costs of Open and Closed Access: Using the Finnish Research Output as an Example

“…There would be potential savings in the transaction costs, and more important, this would make it possible to combine the data on both licensing costs and OA charges at an organizational and (with some extra effort) also at a national level. In some European countries including the United Kingdom (Pinfield, Salter, & Bath, 2015), Norway and Sweden (Eriksson, 2013), university-level OA funds are already fairly common; in Finland they are currently still in early planning stages.…”

“…They predict that the APCs will be "well below €2000 in a purely open access scenario", while according to their data, the expenses of the current subscription-based publishing model is between €3800 and €5000 per article. Pinfield et al (2015) have come up with even higher numbers, based on the actual APC payment data collected from 23 British institutions. According to their data, the mean cost of APCs -including both Gold OA and hybrid journals-was £1682 (ca.…”